flying buttress

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noun Architecture.

a segmental arch transmitting an outward and downward thrust to a solid buttress that through its inertia transforms the thrust into a vertical one.

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Origin of flying buttress

First recorded in 1660–70

Words nearby flying buttress

flying boat, flying bomb, flying bond, flying boxcar, flying bridge, flying buttress, flying circus, flying colors, flying colours, flying column, flying doctor

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use flying buttress in a sentence

That ground hold was to stop you flying through weather that could kill you and everyone else aboard.
Annoying Airport Delays Might Prevent You From Becoming the Next AirAsia 8501|Clive Irving|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The copilot on Flight 8501 was Remi Emmanuel Piesel, 46, who despite his age had just 2,275 hours of flying experience.
Annoying Airport Delays Might Prevent You From Becoming the Next AirAsia 8501|Clive Irving|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Inevitably, the old visceral “hands-on” flying skills, no longer much employed by pilots, have atrophied like an unused limb.
Flight 8501 Poses Question: Are Modern Jets Too Automated to Fly?|Clive Irving|January 4, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The “pilot flying” was more probably the far less experienced copilot.
Flight 8501 Poses Question: Are Modern Jets Too Automated to Fly?|Clive Irving|January 4, 2015|DAILY BEAST

One report has the AirAsia Airbus flying at a speed very close to what would trigger a low speed stall.
Did Bad Weather Bring Down AirAsia 8501?|Clive Irving|December 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Profiting by this, Benjy quietly moved away round a colossal buttress of the berg, and took refuge in an ice-cave.
The Giant of the North|R.M. Ballantyne
I asked him to tell me how he produced a certain effect he makes in his arrangement of the ballad in Wagner's Flying Dutchman.
Music-Study in Germany|Amy Fay
These Eskimos were very fond of kite-flying, for its own sake, without reference to utility!
The Giant of the North|R.M. Ballantyne
Pretty well for "a cross between an Astley's chariot, a flying machine and a treadmill."
Glances at Europe|Horace Greeley
I've seen just enough of flying fishes to hanker after Mandalay, just enough of Spaniards to long for a sight of Spain.
The Soldier of the Valley|Nelson Lloyd

British Dictionary definitions for flying buttress

flying buttress

noun

a buttress supporting a wall or other structure by an arch or part of an arch that transmits the thrust outwards and downwardsAlso called: arc-boutant

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for flying buttress

flying buttress

An external, arched support for the wall of a church or other building. Flying buttresses were used in many Gothic cathedrals (see also cathedral); they enabled builders to put up very tall but comparatively thin stone walls, so that much of the wall space could be filled with stained-glass windows. The cathedrals of Chartres and Notre Dame de Paris were built with flying buttresses.